ATHENS — Does Georgia football have enough on its roster to win a national championship in 2025?

Nothing like getting right to the point.

Kirby Smart is still in it to win championships, but the model has changed, and UGA — like most everyone else — is working on a new business model.

That doesn’t ease the pain or frustration of what proved to be a tough College Football Playoff season for the Bulldogs.

Right when it seemed like the program had finally caught a break, and everyone was enjoying the feel-good story of pickup truck driving, homegrown QB Gunner Stockton, the luck of the Irish kicked in.

It’s one thing to say that “sometimes it’s just not your day.”

But fact is, Georgia was far from at its best and made uncharacteristic mistakes on the field and in the coaching booth, and an opportunistic Notre Dame team that led the nation in takeaways took full advantage.

Lessons Learned

Lessons were learned and realizations were made in these playoffs, and Georgia fans can take some comfort in knowing Smart is a fast learner who has a UGA administration that’s completely behind him.

History will reflect Georgia maintained its “dynasty” status with another SEC title under its belt and an unmatched active streak of eighth-straight Top 7 rankings.

The Bulldogs will penchant for producing NFL talent will be noted once again this offseason, with six UGA players headed to the Senior Bowl, and three players projected to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

Those are critical elements on Georgia’s resume that prospective players can and will take note of when considering the program.

Meanwhile, we know from history that Smart isn’t going to waste any time or negative energy looking back on the missed college football playoff opportunity.

It was Smart who famously said after a gut-wrenching 26-23 overtime loss to Alabama in the CFP Championship Game after the 2017 season that, “I’m not going to let that game beat me twice.”

So Smart went to work securing players that, four years later, won back-to-back titles after growing and competing within the program.

New Twist

That’s happening again, but with the appreciable twist of NIL and a free agent transfer portal world shaping the collegiate football landscape.

Ohio State and Ole Miss served as prime examples that an aggressive approach to the transfer portal is where it’s at.

So more real talk here, OK?

On paper, Georgia doesn’t appear to have done enough — yet — to have the sort of roster that will take down the type of team that will be waiting for it in the playoffs next season.

Ohio State, far and away, was the most talented and best team in the College Football Playoffs.

The version of Bulldogs who limped to the finish with a backup quarterback and heavy attrition at receiver and in the running backs room would have had a tall order matching up with the Buckeyes, even had they gotten by Notre Dame and Penn State.

One could spend a day discussing how the newly expanded playoffs mitigated the importance of the regular season and conference championship games.

Indeed, Ohio State finished fourth-place in the Big Ten and didn’t even appear in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Only Three

To think, only three SEC teams made the playoffs in a season that saw only four Big Ten teams finish in the Top 25, while the SEC produced seven.

It appears being a “top-heavy” conference isn’t such a bad thing in the world of expanded playoffs.

If a healthy and explosive fourth-place team from the Big Ten could win the national championship, it’s fair to wonder if a healthy, free-agent stocked SEC team with explosive offensive playmakers could have done the same.

Lane Kiffin would surely agree.

Finishing this obituary on the 2024 season, it can be noted the SEC got a bad draw when it came to the priorities of this year’s CFP Selection Committee.

Smart once said — after the 2018 season — that “it will be different every year” when it comes to what the CFP Selection Committee values, and he has been proven correct.

This committee bypassed “schedule strength” and settled on “won-loss record.”

Somewhere, Florida State fans are crying.

Parity and depth was not rewarded in the CFP rankings this past season, and in fact proved a detrainment to the SEC.

Coming Up

The NFL draft will surely reflect the SEC hasn’t dropped off, so much as its quality of play from top to bottom was too high for its own good.

The league cannibalized itself.

Looking ahead, Georgia’s schedule is a bit more manageable this season.

It’s not exactly favorable, but at least this season Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas are coming to Athens, along with reasonable road trips to rivals Tennessee and Auburn ahead.

Rivals Florida and Georgia Tech provide some intrigue, both neutral site games at NFL stadiums in Jacksonville and Atlanta.

Oddsmakers have Georgia’s over/under win total at 10.5, and that sounds about right.

But the Bulldogs’ roster has enough holes that Smart and his staff will stay busy.

Rapid development, more talent acquisition in the second portal window and elite coaching will be musts for Georgia to content for the national title.

No doubt, there will be changes ahead, and at Georgia that has typically been a good thing.

It Ain’t Broke

Another Smart saying: “If it ain’t broke, find a way to make it better.”

The 10th-year Georgia head coach has done that before.

Consider, the 2021 Georgia CFP Championship team replaced 15 NFL draft picks and 40 percent of its coaching staff, along 14 of 18 of the game captains.

This year’s team is in reload mode, too, with quarterback Carson Beck taking his NFL arm to Miami, and Trevor Etienne reversing field and choosing to bypass another season in Athens.

That’s a lot of offensive talent going out the door.

Georgia remains capable, but more offensive playmakers must be acquired or quickly developed, and a dangerous edge defender must emerge.

It would be wrong to default to thinking the Bulldogs will be “fine, just because” Smart has seemingly always found a way.

“Just because” isn’t good enough anymore — not with a 12-team playoff giving second and third chances to talented programs that get tripped up during the regular season.

The built-in first-round “bye” for conference championship teams didn’t prove to be the advantage some projected, as all four of those teams receiving a bye lost.

In fact none of the five conference champions managed to win even one playoff game.

That won’t and shouldn’t deter a team from trying to win its respective league title, nor should it diminish the value a conference championship represents.

The Answer

But in building for the future, Smart needs to figure out exactly how best to prepare and structure his team for the new season an expanded 12-team playoff represents.

One answer that can’t be wrong is bringing in more impactful players through the transfer portal, and that means securing more NIL dollars and finding corporate sponsorship.

Final thought: Notre Dame and Ohio State had impact transfer quarterbacks under center in Will Howard (Kansas State) and Riley Leonard (Duke).

Does Georgia need to find a star quarterback out there somewhere to compete for a title next season, or are the in-house candidates good enough.

Stockton and rising talent Ryan Puglisi are certainly “good,” but does “good” translate to “good enough?”

That’s up to Kirby Smart to decide. He’s been here before, and he’s found a way to rebound and win national championships.

The game has changed, but the head coach hasn’t, and that guarantees Georgia will be working as hard at it this offseason as any other program in the nation.